Warning: Character Death in here, you've been warned.
Dedication: To Simmy, again. For urging me on while I got this out.
Author's Note: My finger is killing me. There. Enjoy.

Reality Check



What a day. Another small triumph, or so I'm told. The minister of magic is dead. This really doesn't bother me, as I never liked the guy much anyway. We took the ministry building. I guess they haven't launched an attack on Hogwarts yet.


I'm being moved there. Along with Draco. Lucius gets to be minister, yay for him. If we decide to keep this form over government. Of course, Voldemort is still lord high over all, but Lucius gets to actually do the work. Sucky job, if you ask me. If I have to do all the dirty work, I at least want the big shiny crown.


"Ah, Ron! Draco." Lucius is waiting for us. He kisses Draco on the cheek, and holds his hand out to me. Things are a little different though, with this move. So far I've been the important one, and I've just sort of dragged Draco along with me. Now it's the other way around, and I'm just along for the ride.


"Daddy." Draco returns the kiss on is father's cheek, and swoops into the room. It's a conference room, I think. Maybe. "How many do we have loyal here?"


Strait to business. Lucius gives me a little wink, and a smile.


"We'll get to that in a moment, Draco my dear. Don't worry, I have all the information that is required.
But..." He turns to me, and there's suddenly a ver serious look in his eyes.


"Ron, if you'll come with me? There's a...a bit of a matter. That needs to be taken care of."


A matter. Don't tell me they want me to dispose of more prisoners. Cause really, I can't think of too many dangerous war criminals who are hiding out in the ministry building. I don't see any reason to kill politicians and shit. Lock them up maybe, or enslave them, but not kill them.


"I'm not really here on official duty..." I tell Lucius, and I realize I'm chewing my bottom lip. I haven't done that in ages. I used to do it when I was nervous. I don't get nervous anymore.


I stop and Lucius turns to me. He doesn't look happy. At all.


"I know." He nods. "You are not being required to perform any services." He doesn't say anything more, but he takes me to a little room that looks like it used to be someone's office. It smells sort of funny now. Like new death. Probably because someone had died in it recently. But Lucius sits me down in a comfy chair, and gives me a glass of water.


Now, in my experience when someone with a grave face takes you into a quiet little room and gives you a glass of water, all is not well.


"What is it?" I know he's got bad news for me. I know he does. And I don't want the pansy arse, padded version. If he has something o tell, he comes out and tells me. I'm not a little kid, or a girl or something.


"Ron...I am sorry to tell you this, but your parents have been killed."


"Oh."


I never thought of myself as being physically strong, but I guess I am, because all of a sudden my and is soaking wet and full of little shards of glass. But it doesn't hurt. Not really. Everything's just sort of gone numb.


Lucius doesn't say anything. He doesn't even look at me. Which I'm thankful for, because I think I'm going to cry. I don't want to cry. But I do. I start crying like a little kid. Just sniffling, sort of. Not big wailing crying, I hate that sort of hysterics. But these little hitching sobs, almost like hiccups. And I can feel tears, hot and salty on my cheeks.


Lucius puts a hand on my shoulder, and that's when I break down. I just grab at his coat, and bury my face in his chest, and I cry. I bawl like a woman in birth, and I don't care. My mum and dad are dead. Dead. They died. They weren't supposed to die...


"It was, an accident Ron..." Lucius assures me. I don't even care. I don't care how it happened, or why it happened, just that it did. My parents are Dead. I feel worse then I've ever felt before. Even back in that cell, starving and rank, I didn't feel this....awful inside.


No one I've ever loved has ever died before. I mean, grandparents and stuff, but those were
grandparents. I hardly knew them, and I was little. This is...


My mum. She's never going to yell at me again, or rub my back when I'm sick, or bake me cookies or knit me a sweater. I'll never be able to tell her I'm sorry for what I did, and explain why I did it. And she'll never be able to tell me it's okay, she loves me, she understands...


"Let me get Draco."


Lucius leaves, and I kind of wish he hadn't, but then it's all better because Draco's here, and he's holding me and telling me everything's okay. I clutch him, and somehow we end up on the floor and I'm howling into his shoulder and he's stroking my hair and mumbling stuff to me.


"They're...dead..." I say between sobs. Well, that's a stupid thing to say. Draco knows that. But saying it...saying it makes it more real. I start crying louder, and I can tell Draco's getting uncomfortable. He stops muttering stuff, and he kind of detaches himself.


"Ron… calm down...this is...it's unseemly, is what it is. What if our lord saw you?" And he's sort of panicking, cause I think I am in hysterics.


"Draco..."


Lucius is still here. And he's pulling away, and I just sort of go over to the window and stare out in and try and get myself under control. I know I should feel angry and stuff at Voldemort, but I don't. I feel angry and hurt at myself for not doing more to *make sure* they were okay. I mean, what about the rest of my family? Are they all gonna have accidents too?


I can hear muffled voices from behind me, almost an argument. High voices raised, Lucius, some other people...I don't really care. My parents are Dead.


There's footsteps behind me, real soft hesitant ones. Almost girlish. Draco. I guess I'm calmed down to the point where he can stand me. And strong arms go around me from behind, much stronger then Draco. And longer. And someone's holding me, timidly, then stronger. I feel a soft kiss on the top of my head, and I turn around, and I just start bawling all over again.


Thank Merlin. That's all I have to say.


"How did...what did...you...?" Is all I can manage between sobs.


"Now's not the time." So calm, so in control. Percy was always so damn in control. Why should now be any different?


He holds me, and we cry, and then I can't cry anymore. And we're alone. I pull away, wiping at my eyes. We just sort of look at each other for a moment, and then he begins straitening out his robes and adjusting his glasses and doing a million other little things that let me know he's in control of himself.


"Well." He says, regarding me stiffly.


"Yeah." Is all I say, and I look down at my feet. For the first time I actually feel ashamed.


"I would have done the same." He admits to me. I look up, and nod. He would, too. I think Percy and I are more alike then we'll ever admit.


"Are you going to?" I ask him, swallowing thickly. It still hurts.


"I think...most likely." He hates saying it. I don't blame him.


"It's for the best Perc." I have to tell him. I have to convince him, and I think I have to convince myself. "We're winning and..."


"I know, Ron. I know what side is winning. I've been out here, remember?" He's chastizing me. But I deserve it.


"It's not bad."


"For some." He puts a hand on my shoulder, and sighs. "Everyone likes to think they're a martyr, but really..." He trails off, sighing. "If the world were full of martyrs, it wouldn't be full at all."


"Nope." Bless his logic. I need this. I need someone else, someone I love and trust, telling me what I did is okay.


"How...how did it happen?" Now I care. Now I want to know.


"I'm not sure." He takes off his glasses, and begins polishing them. "Really, it was mass chaos. Not at all like the usual attacks."


"That's cause I didn't do this one." I'm actually kind of proud to admit it. If *I* had been in charge, mum and dad wouldn't be dead right now.


"Mmm. At any rate...." He doesn't say anything else, and now he's staring off beyond me. I know what he's thinking. I've thought it myself. He's glad he isn't the one dead, and he hates himself for feeling that way.


"Don't doubt yourself Percy." I tell him. "If you don't...if you don't try and make excuses for yourself, you'll get along okay."


"I suppose." He regards me very seriously. "It's better this way." He finally says. "They...they wouldn't have wanted to see us like this, would they?"


"I like to think they'd be glad we were alive." Is all I say. Trust Percy to undermine the few things I'm using to cling to sanity and reason.


"Then think whatever gets you through the night, Ron." He puts his glasses back on and sighs.


"Yeah." I don't know what else to say. But I'm glad Percy's here. More glad then I can say, really. "I love you."


"Oh honestly Ron!" He rolls his eyes, and again there's that feeling of everything being all right. If I can keep going like this, everything is going to turn out fine.


"Come on..." I say. "I need a stiff drink, and you need...well, we need to get you settled."


"Such a quaint way of putting things." So droll, and dry. I feel a little better though. Not as dead and cold inside. I want to wash my face though, I know I must look awful. Puffy and red eyed, like Percy. Lucius is waiting outside, and Percy just nods to him. Resigned like. He's led away, and I know what's going to happen to him. The same thing that happened to me. Branded. But he's alive, and he'll do good. He's smart and collected, and he'll do real good.


And I don't have to worry about him.


"Better?" Draco asks. I nod, and put an arm around his shoulders.


"Yeah. I need a drink though."


"And I need to get to work." Draco tells me, giving me a light kiss. "Tonight..." He promises. Oh yes. Tonight. I'm going to need him very badly tonight. And it's going to be a huge emotional thing.


And I'll try not to cry.


~~~~~~~~~~